Our place in the worldwide Christian Church
We are connected to the historic church. We confess Jesus Christ and the faith of the apostles as recorded in the Holy Scriptures. We believe the authority of the Bible is supreme in all matters of faith, doctrine, and conduct, and it is to be trusted. “What does the Bible say?” is Hillcrest’s touchstone of discussion with regard to what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
We are part of the worldwide church. We understand ourselves to be a part of the community of believers that began with Jesus’s first followers, is alive today, and will continue until Christ comes again.
We are a Reformation church. We stand in the mainstream of a church renewal movement of the sixteenth century called the Protestant Reformation. Especially important is the belief that we are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, not by anything that we can do. We also identify with the renewal movements that began in seventeenth-century Europe and emphasized the need for a life that is personally connected to Jesus Christ, a reliance on the Holy Spirit, and a call to service in the world.
We are an evangelical church. A series of religious awakenings flowered in Europe and America during the nineteenth century and provided rich soil for the early growth of evangelical mission. Evangelicals historically have been characterized by a strong insistence on biblical authority, the necessity of new birth, Christ’s mandate to evangelize the world, the continuing need for education and formation in a Christian context, and a responsibility for benevolence and the advancement of social justice.
We are a Free Methodist Church. Our spiritual heritage began with the revival in England led by John and Charles Wesley and the Methodists. We are Wesleyan in our theology, believing that God’s redemptive grace is available for all who would choose to respond to His invitation to follow Jesus. We think that God’s renewal can penetrate into the very core of our beings: that we really can love God with our whole being; that we really can love our neighbors as ourselves; that we can be cleaned, not just dirt painted-over. This call to wholeness makes us bold to confront all destructive behaviors – anything that dishonors God. Becoming real Christ-followers is the great purpose of our community. We are serious about disciple-making and sharing the good news. We encourage everyone to grow spiritually, whether you are just finding out who Jesus is, have recently decided to follow Jesus, or have been walking the “narrow road” as a Christian in for a while.
Our Doctrine:
For more details about our Doctrine, visit the Free Methodist Church’s website.
